June 28th Readings

                The readings from June 28^th each covered different aspects of reading. The article by Lori Jamison and Wilfred Burton discuss which level book to give to each student and how to determine this. It is said that a balance must be provided between challenge and support for the students to not only succeed at reading but enjoy it also. This has been referred to many times is class as the “Goldie Locks” approach, find a book that is not too hard and not too easy--- a book that is just right. Jamison and Burton go over a 10 level rubric that is often used to determine what level a book falls onto. The rubric goes into great detail of each of the 10 levels. I feel that the levels are almost too tightly interwoven. The differences are small  from one level to another, yet I can see how the rubric may be a successful tool in classrooms.

                An additional way to determine levels of readers would be Running Records. I enjoyed reading over this book , as well as practicing in class. Practicing the assessment made me more familiar with the concept, I liked the hands on approach to learning about Running Records. I can see how Running Records are a useful tool for teachers and school. They provide a clear description of how a child is reading , when compared- the first assessment of a child to the next, I feel that it would be easy to see the improvement (or lack thereof) that was made. However, correctly using a Running Record and correctly assessing a child will take practice with the system. My only concern with Running Records would be time constraints. I feel as though we have talked a lot about the time crunch in the classroom, so I worry as to when teachers find time to fit Running Records in. I suppose they could be done while other students are working individually or during centers. I find Running Records to be a great way to evaluate readers—they provide tools, symbols and scales for assessing students correctly and efficiently.

Guided Reading Search

                  When looking for an article on guided reading, I struggled to find one specific article/website that encompassed all the information that I wanted it to. Instead I found a few that hit on key points and goals of guided reading. This article, http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4343, is a very basic run down of what guided reading is and the steps for carrying it out. I liked this because it gave a clean-cut description of how to carry out a guided reading lessons-definitely something that could be looked back on and used once I am teaching in my own classroom. http://www.msrossbec.com/literacy_index.html -This website belongs to Ms. Ross, who I believe is a first grade teacher. The guided reading web page is a link off of her classroom website (which can be accessed by clicked "home" on the side bar), I found this website to be very insightful. It gives an opportunity to see just home guided reading is implicated in an actual class. The sidebar link titled "FAQ" was very informative. I spent a great amount of time reading the different parts of this website, going back to the "home" portion and clicking other links as well. I found this to be encouraging and beneficial. I also looked over this website, http://www.four-blocks.com/greading.html -it provides resources to use during guided reading exercises. I felt that this would be a helpful resource when moving into the classroom setting. Many of the item on the site look as though they would be wonderful ways to engage students and assist them in guided reading.
            Although I did not pick a traditional journal or article, I feel that I benefited greatly by searching for a journal or article on the topic of guided reading. I read many different articles and reviewed tons of websites set up by teachers! I am very impressed by the web of connected teachers sharing their successes and failures with other, I think this is a great way to grow and improve as a teacher.There are multiple discussion boards where teachers from across the nation use each other as sound boards, asking for feedback on what guided reading exercises worked for their classes and which didn't.

June 21st Readings

               Comprehension plays a huge role in the learning process. For a student to successfully absorb the material being read, they must also comprehend it. The Gill article discusses the environment in which students are in when reading as well as the material and interest level. I personally feel that this is a VITAL part of comprehension. If your students do not see a purpose in reading the material or they do no connect with it, they will just breeze through the reading without absorbing anything deeper than headings and summaries. On the same note, the setting in which children read is key, I know for myself if I feel rushed or that I am being watched by others I tend to speed up my reading and not fully take in the material I am reading. At 22 years old I still catch myself racing to finish first (aka, skimming), if that’s true at this age I can only image what competitive elementary school readers feel!

                Schema is stressed in all of the readings and rightfully so. How can we expect students to make sense of anything if they do not see a way to connect their new knowledge to prior readings? Pre-reading, during-reading and post-reading activities are beneficial to young readers, enabling them to make connects, ask questions and summarize gained information in a structure way. In the Gregory and Cahill, Mrs. Hope guided her student through the visual aid of a head with ideas and thought floating inside. I find this to be a brilliant way to explain schema to younger students, even making it a pre-reading activity—maybe let them fill the head with what they know before each reading! I really enjoyed the examples given in this article, I was able to see how they could dramatically influence the comprehension levels of students and it gave me multiple ideas for engaging student knowledge.

                Each article also draws attention to the fact that comprehension is not fully the responsibility of the student. Teachers must foster the ideas of schema and developing comprehension. It is extremely important for teacher to understand the concept of comprehension before they are able to teach comprehension. I also believe that is it important for teachers to fully comprehend the material they are teaching prior to presenting it to their students. I see this as more of an issue in the upper grades, but maybe even some in lower grades. I can remember too many instances in my middle school and high school years when I felt my teachers were less than prepared to teach the subject matter. As a student, this decreased my desire to learn the information. Comprehension comes full circle here; both the students and the teachers must understand the concept of comprehension before it can be successfully practiced.

June 16th Readings

                New vocabulary is key to enriching one’s spoken and written vocabulary ability. As a teacher, you are destined to encounter a variety of different level readers and writers. This all comes back to vocabulary. Some students come from vocabulary emphasized homes, where as others come from homes where vocabulary and reading were never stressed; the responsibly of making the classroom flow despite this, falls upon the teacher. Not only must we play catch up for those that are behind, but also it is also very important to not lose the interest of those who came into your class more advanced. The Lane and Allen article provides a look into Ms. Barkers classroom, the progression of her students for “weather watcher” to “meteorologist” shows the vocabulary growth of the students in just one year. Although this approach (task assignment) may not be practical in every classroom, it seems to be very effective. By giving the students a clear definition and something to relate the word to, I feel it makes grasping and actually using the word much more likely. The same article also makes the statement, “knowing a word is not an all-or-nothing proposition,” as a future teacher, I find this statement to be very enlightening. Students may understand parts of words, when they do not understand the entire word—this is a step in the process of comprehending larger words, it is a way in which students grow and expand their vocabulary. Using more advanced words on a daily basis in your classroom will help the students adjust to hearing them and become more comfortable using them. The Blachowicz and Fisher article says that student are on average two years behind on oral vocabulary, going on to say that school curriculum should expose students to a more rich vocabulary environment—providing a venue for students to expand and explore. Through increasing the level of vocabulary used in the classroom, teachers are providing the scaffolding for their students.

                The Hart and Risley article just further the previous point of a variety of students, with a variety of vocabulary. The study discussed followed 42 families all from different socioeconomic backgrounds and watched their development in a vocabulary sense. I found this article to be particularly interesting. I am a Sociology major, I pick sociology because I had to pick an arts and science. Sociology was the most interesting of the A&S’s to me, I have never felt like my major really connected to my Elementary Education minor…that is until now. Before, I knew that my knowledge of socioeconomic diversity and racism as it applies to education, job opportunities and daily life, would be handy as a student in the urban-multicultural cohort. Now, however, I have read this study and I see a clear breakdown of the way in which social classes truly hinder students. I feel more driven than ever to provide a learning rich environment for the students who already use school as an escape.